


That changes nothing, actually it changes everything

by lynxofspace



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24148957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynxofspace/pseuds/lynxofspace
Summary: I'm not a writer, do not expect quality.Buck mentioned a guy he found attractive and was surprised the 118 didn't know he was bi. Eddie didn't care, or he tried very hard not to.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 390





	That changes nothing, actually it changes everything

It was a Friday afternoon and the 118 were at a call at a bar where someone had gotten drunk and fallen onto some broken glass. They got calls like these all the time. They were usually in and out pretty fast, depending on how many flirty girls they had to politely turn down. Buck always flirted just a little bit, but Eddie usually didn’t bother. He was happy to let Buck have the attention. 

Eddie once again watched Buck engaged in a conversation with a group of drunken strangers. The rest of the 118 were retreating to their cars. He heard Buck tell them he had to go and a few seconds later Buck had caught up with him. “Anyone get your number?” Eddie joked. 

“Nah. The blonde was kind of cute, though,” Buck said with a smile. 

Eddie had to turn around to double check, but he was pretty sure- yep, the only blonde in the group was a tall, and yes, handsome young man. He wasn’t sure if Buck had meant it the way he heard it, but he didn’t know how to ask. “But not cute enough to get your number?” he asked instead. 

“A little too young for me,” Buck said in the same, entirely serious, but also lighthearted tone of voice. 

Was Eddie supposed to know Buck was into guys? Had Buck ever mentioned any guys?Eddie wasn’t sure what to make of it. Should he ask? He thought he knew his best friend after spending almost every day together for two years. “Ah.” He said, still lost in thought. 

By the time they reached the truck Eddie had concluded that Buck had probably mentioned it at some point and Eddie had forgotten. He wasn’t sure how he could have, but it didn’t matter, he didn’t care who Buck was into. 

__________________________________________

When they sat down for dinner at the fire station Buck told the rest of the 118 about the cute guy. Eddie watched the others around the table carefully and he noticed surprise on all of their faces. Maybe this wasn’t something he should have known already. He hoped someone would ask.

“How long have you been into guys?” Chimney asked, breaking the slightly awkward silence when nobody had said anything after Buck finished. 

“I’ve always been into guys,” Buck answered, jokingly offended. 

“You have literally never mentioned being into guys,” Hen said. 

“Are you sure? I feel like it must have come up at some point.” Buck looked around the table. 

“Not once,” Hen said. 

“I guess there has been a lot of ladies lately.” Buck grabbed some more food. “Why are you guys making such a big deal out of this?”

“We’re just surprised there’s stuff about you we don’t know.” Bobby said. 

Eddie was still taking in all the information when all the faces around the table turned to him. He realized he hadn’t said anything yet and the rest of the table was waiting for him to agree with them. “I’m as surprised as all of you,” he said, not meaning it to come out so defensive.

“Fine, next time I won’t say anything,” Buck said. 

“Oh, come on, Buck, you know that’s not what we mean,” Hen said before changing the subject. 

________________________________________

Buck was so tired he could barely think straight when his head hit the pillow that night. They had gotten a call after dinner and it had taken all of his energy. Despite being so tired that he couldn’t be bothered to fix the duvet that was angled so his foot was sticking out, he couldn’t sleep. He kept replaying the dinner conversation in his head. He had come out to the firehouse today, even though he could have sworn he had done that ages ago. 

Three of the surprised faces didn’t bother him at all, he wasn’t worried about them in the slightest. The fourth one though, his best friend, he wasn’t sure what to make of that one. Did Eddie really not know? And now that he did, would he overthink all of their interactions? Buck had flirted with Eddie on several occasions, but that was all just part of his personality, Buck flirted with everybody. 

Being a bisexual man who was easily attracted to people, Buck was good at setting up emotional boundaries. Especially with men. It was second nature to him when he met someone new. The ones surrounding Eddie were harder to hold up than most of his friends, but they were there. 

Eddie had been unusually quiet the rest of the day. He should probably talk to him about this whole thing before anyone got uncomfortable. He should-

_____________

-monster octobirds! Buck woke up sweating from what had luckily been a dream. When had he fallen asleep? What day was it? What?

He looked at his phone to see that it was 5 AM and Saturday, which meant he didn’t have work today. He got out of bed and took a shower, and by the time he was done in the bathroom he was back to worrying about what to tell Eddie. 

He made it all the way to Eddie’s front door before his stomach told him he was nervous. It wasn’t like he was confessing his love to the guy, actually it was quite the opposite, but Buck was afraid of rejection and he had no idea how this conversation was going to go. 

Eddie was at the door within seconds after Buck rang the doorbell. “Buck?” He asked, obviously confused. 

“Expecting someone else?” Buck joked while moving closer to the door, not giving Eddie a chance to invite him before he walked in. 

Eddie moved away as Buck approached and closed the door behind them. “Not really, it’s 6:30 on a Saturday.”

Buck detected a hint of something in his tone but he decided not to read into it. “I probably should have called first, but I know Chris gets up early on Saturdays to watch the new episodes of that show he likes.”

“And you wanted to join him?” Eddie joked. 

“Eddie, we need to talk.” Buck saw worry appear on the other man’s face. 

“About what?”

“Do you have a problem with me being into guys? Because I promise you I’m not into you. I don’t want things to be awkward between us, at work or outside. And-” Buck stopped himself when he realized he was rambling. 

“Of course not. Buck, I really don’t care.” Eddie put a hand on Buck’s shoulder. “And even if you were into me, I’d just be flattered.”

Eddie’s words lifted a weight off Buck’s shoulders, and he wasn’t sure why he had been so worried in the first place. “Okay, good.”

“Did you come all this way just to say that?” Eddie asked. 

“Well you didn’t exactly say much yesterday.”

_______________________________________________

A few months passed without anyone bringing up the subject of sexuality. In fact, Eddie hadn’t even thought about it until Buck brought a boy to the family dinner at Bobby and Athena’s place. Eddie had greeted him and been polite, but he didn’t like him. He didn’t know why he didn’t like him, he seemed like a likeable guy, Eddie just didn’t. 

“Thanks for inviting me,” the man said as he sat down at the table next to Buck. 

“We’re just happy to finally meet you, David,” Athena said as she took her seat. 

“You too! Buck can’t stop talking about the 118. About all of you,” David said, gesturing at the room. 

Eddie sat down as far from Buck and David as he could. He wondered to himself why he was acting so childish, this wasn’t anything different from Buck inviting girls over. He also wondered why everyone acted like they’d known about David for a long time when Eddie hadn’t heard of him until today. “So what do you do?” Eddie asked, in an attempt to be polite and seem interested. 

“I’m an actor. Well I’m one of the millions trying to make it in Hollywood,” David answered. 

“He’s actually been in a couple of movies and he was a guest star on that cop show last week,” Buck chimed in. 

“Oh! That’s where I recognised you from!” Athena said excitedly. It was no secret that cop shows were Athena’s guilty pleasure. She loved to point out every way it was unrealistic. 

“Sounds fun,” Eddie said and the conversation was ended when Bobby declared it was time to dive in. 

The food was delicious, as it always was when Bobby cooked, and it was a lovely evening. The more he learned about David the more he started to- no, he still wasn’t too sure about the guy, but Buck was his best friend and he deserved all the happiness in the world. Eddie decided to not feel whatever he was feeling and just let it go. 

________________________________________________

It turned out Buck’s relationship with David was short lived. Despite being the exact same age the two where in completely different stages in their lives, at least that was the official story. Eddie hadn’t asked for details. Eddie never quite warmed up to the guy. 

Buck was back to flirting with everybody he met. Eddie even noticed him flirting with guys now. Had he always done that and Eddie just hadn’t noticed or was this something new? At a call that day one of the girls had actually gotten his number, which he didn’t give out to just anybody. 

She invited herself to the bar with them that same night. A little clingy, Eddie thought, but he didn’t say anything. Hanging out with their usual crowd and this new girl made Eddie the only solo there. Truth be told, he’d rather be home with Chris, but they didn’t get to hang out without the kids very often and he had already planned for May to babysit. 

Eddie spent most of the night hanging with Chim and Maddie. He couldn’t stop sneaking peeks of Buck and his date though, which Maddie and Chim eventually caught on to. 

“Are you jealous?” Chim asked. 

“What?” Chim’s question caught him off guard. 

“Did she pick Buck over you or something?” Chim joked. 

“Nah, she just reminds me of someone and I can’t put my finger on who,” Eddie lied and changed the topic. He hadn’t even talked to the girl. It wasn’t jealousy he was feeling, it couldn’t be. 

__________________________________________________

Buck never scheduled a second date with Kate. His heart wasn’t in it. His heart hadn’t been _in_ anything since Abby, and even then they never got past the honeymoon stage of their relationship. Buck always knew on some level that him and Abby never had a future together, but it still hurt when she left. He told himself that that pain was why his few of relationships since Abby never went anywhere, but in truth it was probably all the walls he had put up. Maybe it was time to poke a few holes. Windows. Just not with Kate. 

He brought the topic up to Eddie at the fire station on a particularly slow day. Not even a cat in a tree. Eddie wasn’t the best when it came to feelings either, but Buck still valued his opinion. 

“I don’t think i’m the right person to give you advice about this,” Eddie said when Buck had finished his rant.

“At least you’ve been in a long term relationship.”

“Not a healthy one, and you know how it ended.”

Buck hadn’t meant to bring up Shannon, Eddie was over her, they had talked about it at length, but Buck saw the sadness in his eyes every time he thought about her. She was the mother of his child, he didn’t blame him. “Well thank you for listening.” 

“That I can do.”

“What are we talking about?” Hen asked as she walked into the room and joined them on the couch, sitting on the armrest. 

“Buck’s love life,” Eddie said. “Or lack of one.”

Hen laughed. “Didn’t you use to be on dating apps? Maybe you should try that again?”

“I’m not that person anymore.” 

“Those apps aren’t just for hookups, you know. I know several couples who met on dating sites that are married with kids now.”

Buck hadn’t thought about that, back when he used those apps he was only looking for one night stands. He didn’t like how impersonal it was, but maybe it was worth a shot. 

___________________________________________

Eddie was over at Buck’s apartment for beers on a Friday night when Chris was at a sleepover with some kids from his class. Last Eddie had heard Buck had signed up for a dating app and had been talking to a couple of people. “So have you met anyone yet?” 

“I’ve been chatting with this guy named Mike, but we haven’t made any plans to meet up yet. I’m kind of enjoying this phase, before all the drama and obligations.”

There it was again, that feeling he couldn’t quite describe. “You think this could be something serious?” 

“Maybe. He’s nice and he’s cute and he wants a family, you know how much I want a family.”

“You have a family.” Eddie didn’t mean to sound hurt, he knew Buck meant kids, but the idea that he wasn’t family enough for Buck hurt him just a little bit, he had to admit. 

“If only you liked guys, Diaz,” Buck joked.

Wait, what? What did he mean by that? Eddie didn’t want to think about it, this was Buck being Buck and flirting with everybody. “You know what I mean, the 118, all of us.”

“I know, I know.”

“So he’s cute? Do you have a picture?” Eddie was determined to be okay with this one. If he couldn’t like this guy then he might have to reconsider his reasons and he really didn’t want to do that. 

Buck got out his phone and showed Eddie the picture. “I’ve been meaning to ask for more but he hasn’t offered to send any more even though I’ve sent him tons and I don’t want to be that guy.”

“You should,” Eddie said and took the phone out of his hand. “I’ll do it, I’ll ask for a shirtless picture.”

“Eddie, no!” 

He had only been joking but he liked the reaction he got from Buck so he took it further and ran across the room while pretending to type. “Shirtless pic please,” he mumbled slowly as if he was reading what he was typing. 

“Don’t!” Buck followed him and cornered him up against the wall. 

Eddie stretched his arm up with the phone in it so Buck couldn’t reach it, but Buck was taller than him so when he realized that wouldn’t work he put it behind his back instead. 

“Give it back, Eddie!”

“Or what?” Eddie challenged.

“Or.. I’ll kiss you,” Buck threatened. 

A million thoughts rushed through Eddie’s head but before he got a chance to think about it he had already answered. “Go ahead.”

Buck took a second to look into Eddie’s eyes before he leaned in and kissed him softly. When Buck pulled away Eddie grabbed Buck’s face with his free hand and kissed him passionately. Suddenly everything made sense. Buck. 

“That was…” Buck started once he caught his breath.

“….amazing,” Eddie finished.

“This doesn’t have to mean anything if you don’t want it to, we can blame it on the beers if that makes you feel more comfortable,” Buck offered. 

“Screw that,” Eddie said and kissed Buck again.

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus points if you know which show i got the inspiration for the kiss from.


End file.
